Solar Energy UK reported on 14 July 2022 that 556MW of solar generating capacity was connected across all scales in the first six months of 2022, a pace the industry body said puts the sector in line to exceed the one gigawatt installed in 2016, when government subsidies were still available1. UK solar capacity now exceeds 15 gigawatts, which the body described as approaching four times the maximum output of the UK's largest power station, Drax1.
Residential rooftops accounted for 164MW fitted from January to June, up from 153MW over the whole of 20211. Quarterly figures show the pace of installation has risen by almost three times year-on-year, with 95MW installed in the second quarter of 2022 compared with 36MW in Q2 20211. New installations at both the smallest and largest scale are now entirely subsidy-free1.
| Segment | Q2 2022 | Comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Residential rooftops | 95MW | 36MW in Q2 2021 |
| Commercial (factories, warehouses) | 97MW | Most in any quarter since 2019 |
| Ground-mounted solar farms | 140MW | Almost triple Q2 2021 |
Commercial-scale installations reached 97MW from April to June, more than in any quarter since 2019, and ground-mounted solar farms gained 140MW in Q2, almost triple the figure from Q2 last year1. The report states that the amount installed at commercial scale during the year to date (192MW) is almost double the amount put in place last year (216MW), a comparison the source presents as written1.
Prices for residential and large commercial installations have increased in line with inflation, by 10 to 15 per cent, from about £1,510 per kilowatt for a small domestic installation of 2 to 5 kilowatts last year to about £1,6841. Solar Energy UK said the cost of power from the grid has increased by around half since last year, so the relative benefit of going solar has only increased1.
"Rooftop solar power is as good an investment as it has ever been. The broader fossil-fuelled price crisis means that this is true even though rooftop Solar's ten-year price decline appears to have halted."
The figures were compiled by Solar Media Ltd, which the announcement says uses in-house project databases, accreditation lists, import volumes from component suppliers and cross-checking with developers, investors and installers1.
Why it matters for households
The deployment figures sit alongside a rise in installed cost. A household comparing a quote against last year's prices is looking at roughly £1,684 per kilowatt rather than about £1,510 for a 2 to 5 kilowatt system, an increase Solar Energy UK attributes to supply chain pressures1. The same announcement states that grid power costs have risen by around half over the same period, which is the comparison the body uses to argue the case for solar has strengthened rather than weakened1.
For a home's energy independence, the relevant change is that new installations at the smallest scale are now entirely subsidy-free1. There is no feed-in tariff or equivalent support behind the growth described here; the economics rest on the installed price against the retail price of electricity. The 15GW of rooftop solar by 2030 cited in Solar Energy UK's Lighting the Way forecast is a sector target, not a government commitment reported in this announcement1. The announcement does not report how much of the 164MW of residential capacity went to homes with battery storage, nor how much of it was self-consumed rather than exported, and it does not give a figure for average household bill savings.
What happens next
Solar Energy UK said 2022 is set to comfortably exceed the 1GW level for the first time since 2016, according to Finlay Colville, Head of Market Intelligence at Solar Media, who cited growing pipelines and the 2GW of utility-scale sites successful in the Contracts for Difference Round 4 auction1. No further dated milestones are given in the announcement.